Goin' on a eel hunt...

WARNING: Some photos may be graphic and unsuited for those with weak stomachs.

Eel a-la Kikkoman

Stu, ass over tea kettle in the river...he managed to save his beer

Darius AKA "Daaz" baiting the hook

Me, trying to land to eel on the rocks

Darius giving the eel its last rights.

Stu showing us the ropes

Preparing dinner.

One of a the more favorite Kiwi past times is eel and possum hunting. Endearingly know as "eeling and possuming." I know this because the Kiwi folk I camped with for a few nights in the Coromandle Peninsula tuned me on to the finer points of doing both. First eeling: This is not a passive activty like possuming. Its very similar to fishing, but with the lights out, and you use the highest quality meat scraps you can find. To begin you must consume copious amouns of beer or (for the ladies, who are very schooled eelers themselves) wine. This not only gives one the extrasensory ability to sense an "eel on the line" but gives you the perception of having warm dry feet when they are nothing of the sort. Find yourself a nice perch on a wet mossy rock and cast out a ragged piece of twine hooked with the finest fatted scraps of the nights Kiwi feast.

Wait.

Turn off all your headlamps and "shhsh" each other in hopes that the silence will somhow trick the eels into some further auditory lack and take the bait.

When there is no pole tip (as in fishing) to alert you of a nibble or a strike, you become wise in the ways of feeling the devine energy of the eel from the rocks below up the line and into the tips of your filthy steak fatted fingers. Eventually the eels will "smell" the bait and swim upstream to sniff if out. If its appealing they will swallow the fatty bit and you can "hook 'em". This whole process doesnt take very long (about 5 minutes) eels are not the smartest of creatures and are drivn by food. Once you catch the eel there is a frenzy of eel whipping to give everyone a spook and a laugh. And finally when the eel is landed you get the man with the biggest knife to cut the head off the thing. Now there is some debate as to weather the nerver center of an eel is in the hear or the tail and while some people think its in the head there are others who think it must be in the tail. NOt knowing we start with the head and if it stil moves work our way to the tail.

Eating eel. Being in the company of Kiwis I assumed that preparing eel was somthing like gutting a fish. They eat all sorts of odd foods, Kina, Paua and Mutton. Well it turns out that catching and eel is quite different than preparing and eating an eel. At this stage it's well past midnight and nobody is really hungry for more food considering the massive steaks that were for dinner. So the debate as to weather eels have guts that need to be dealt with or skin that needs to be pulled off begins. Turns out the impressive knowledge of Kiwi eeling stops at the hunt. Nobody knew how to prepare the eel as they had always eaten them smoked. It was decided that the eels would become possum bait....thats the next installment. Possum Hunting.